scholiast

[skoh-lee-ast]

noun

1. an ancient commentator on the classics.

2. a person who writes scholia.

scholiast

/ ˈskəʊlɪˌæst /

noun

1. a medieval annotator, esp of classical texts

Other Word Forms

• scholiastic adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of scholiast¹

From the Greek word scholiastḗs, dating back to 1575–85. See scholium, -ast

Word History and Origins

Origin of scholiast¹

C16: from Late Greek skholiastēs, from skholiazein to write a _scholium

Example Sentences

Numerous quotations and fragments still exist, chiefly in the Homeric scholiasts and Stephanus of Byzantium.

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The Greek poets, Homer not excepted, are by their scholiasts regarded as treating of their gods in a mystical style.

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On this a scholiast says that the name “Homeridae” denoted originally descendants of Homer, who sang his poems in succession, but afterwards was applied to rhapsodists who did not claim descent from him.

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Nothing can express this superstitious rite more forcibly than the following letter from Aspasia to Pericles, recorded by one of the scholiasts of Ælian.

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Thus it seemed to the sophists, to the scholiasts, alchemists, cabalists, Talmudists, and to our own scientific science and to our artistic art.

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